Auto-Waiting in Web Test Automation Clarified

The so-called “auto-waiting” mechanism is, in fact, inferior; it is just marketing. When it comes to real e2e test automation, Selenium WebDriver’s waiting mechanism is better.

This article is one of the “IT Terminology Clarified” series.

According to this WebDriverIO document, “One of the most common reasons for flaky tests are interactions with elements that don’t exist in your application at the time you want to interact with it. Modern web applications are very dynamic, elements show up and disappear.” While the description is correct, often fake automated testers shift “flaky” blame to the framework, which is very wrong. This is a human issue, flaky tests are poor-quality ones. Real test automation engineers (such as the ones at Facebook and Google) have been achieving successful test automation on dynamic websites using raw Selenium WebDriver.

The so-called “Auto-Waiting” feature to address ‘flaky tests’ is a marketing slogan by no-good automation frameworks to lure fake automated testers to a dark path.

Table of Contents:
· Background
· Selenium IDE, a recorder, was a Mistake
· Dynamic Apps make “Record-Dependent Automated Testers” Cannot even Fake anymore
· Selenium…